The present invention relates to supply vehicles, and more particularly, to material supply carts.
Presently, railroad tracks are held in place by being anchored and spiked to railroad ties, the ties rest on a bed of crushed stone. New railroad tracks are constantly being installed, and old railroad tracks are constantly being repaired, as diligent maintenance prevents undesirable derailments.
Today, machines automatically drive spikes and anchors that secure the railroad track to the railroad ties, thus greatly reducing labor costs. However, the manner the spikes and the anchors are delivered to those machines is quite problemsome. That task consumes significant time and manual labor. Although there are machines to automatically drive spikes and anchors, the spikes and anchors are typically delivered in heavy metal buckets. Railroad workers must manually carry and load the spikes or anchors from the buckets into the machine. Additionally, since these buckets are designed for manual handling, they typically carry a small supply of spikes or anchors.
There are numerous disadvantages with this manual delivery process. These disadvantages include increased injuries to the railroad workers, time wasted in opening and handling the cumbersome buckets, and time lost while the automatic spike and anchor driving machine idlely awaits for more spikes or anchors. Additionally, when the buckets are emptied, they become dangerous objects with many sharp edges being exposed where the buckets were opened, and must be promptly disposed of. Proper disposal takes additional time and expense.
The present invention provides a novel solution to the problem of delivering railroad spikes, anchors, and the like to an automatic anchor or spike driving machine.